


And so, he stood

by oxygenial



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, but i needed to fix this, hey so uh major spoilers for kh3 ending if you aint there yet, riku & kairi are friends too nomura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 07:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18773620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxygenial/pseuds/oxygenial
Summary: Riku turned to the stars, wondering which ones Sora landed on and who else had their hearts changed by his kindness. The stars did not answer. They twinkled on like they did before he left, and Riku suspected they would keep shining long afterward, too.





	And so, he stood

She had been sitting on that tree for far too long. Twilight was setting in and the light of the worlds shone brighter than before, blinking and twinkling happily while the Guardians admired their work. Riku, though, couldn’t enjoy their show. He was drawn to the girl on the inlet who sat with her arms crossed and head down. She’d been alone for far too long. 

Kairi made no motion to acknowledge him when he approached. When Riku finally reached her side, he saw a second set of footprints beside her own, dirt kicked up in front of the bench that the paopu tree created. There was no body to have made them next to her, no proof besides the sand that he existed just hours ago. Riku couldn’t bring himself to sit where he did, either, and instead leaned against the trunk like he did so many times before. At that moment, Kairi began to shudder. Her shoulders trembled with her sobs and her hands had to be awfully cold, but Riku wasn’t sure he had any warmth to give her. He felt just as empty as she looked.

“Do you think he’s safe, where he is?” she asked after a while.

It took Riku a moment to process her question. Did he even exist anymore? Could the worlds hold together the boy who tore himself apart? Riku shook his head then; he knew better than to think so negatively. “I think he’s okay. His heart is strong, isn’t it?”

“Stronger than all of ours,” Kairi said, and Riku hummed in agreement.

Love was a powerful thing, Riku had come to find out. All his life, he never could place why he felt so strongly for Sora. For a long time, he thought it was jealousy that fueled him. It wasn’t jealousy that closed the Door, though, and it wasn’t jealousy that devoured Sora’s dreams. He settled on giving no name to this driving force because until recently, he didn’t think such a name existed. He was content to be pushed onward by this nameless feeling so long as it made Sora smile by the end of the day. Perhaps this was the strength to protect what mattered—the thing he’d been chasing since he was young. Riku finally gave that strength a name when he saw Sora fall to his knees and wail in the Graveyard, merciless shadows looming overhead.

Surely, he would mourn. But if he could make Sora stand up, make Sora fight again, make Sora believe in himself—that would be worth the cost. For Sora, he would bear it all.

And so, Sora stood.

Riku thinks he must have been to hell and back to pull himself from the ground and keep fighting. He remembered a terrible darkness eating away at him, wrapping around him and suffocating him, and then he slept. A wonderful light took hold of him then, and when he awoke, Sora shot him a triumphant, thousand-watt smile.

It didn’t matter if it wasn’t reciprocated, really. Riku found a name for his strength, and he found it in his best friend of countless years. He didn’t need to hear it back. He just wished he’d gotten to tell him.

Kairi touched his shoulder then, bringing him to the present where a member of their trio was still painfully missing. She turned and used her other hand to wipe at his cheeks, and it was then Riku noticed the tears spilling over them. “I miss him too,” is all she said. Riku leaned into her touch and, to Kairi’s confusion, chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, genuinely puzzled.

Riku sniffled once and wiped at his nose. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever cried in front of you. It was always him. And I was always comforting him.”

“I guess that makes me you, huh? If you’re acting like him,” Kairi returned, laughing weakly. She smoothed back Riku’s hair and straightened out his bangs. It felt good to laugh, even if it only made his absence more apparent. “And that would make him me.”

How fitting, she thought. She spent so much time missing, it’s funny that their game of role reversal would make him mirror her. She was missing, comatose, useless, weak, if only she hadn’t been so weak, he would still be here. He would be laughing with them.

“It’s not your fault,” Riku interjected, as though he could hear the cacophony in her head. It was written on her face, the pain of thinking she was the reason he wasn’t around to watch the stars shine that night. “He wanted to save you, no matter what it cost him.”

“He shouldn’t have had to save me,” she snapped, gaze hard on the footsteps in the sand beside hers. She took her hands back and clenched them together as though holding them would hold her own heart together, too. There were so many other things she wanted to say then—she should have been enough, she should have been more careful, she should have been stronger for him. She was fit to burst with things to say. The look on Riku’s face stopped her, though; the tears welling up in his eyes again were enough.

Riku closed his eyes hard for a moment, screwed them shut as though it would seal the leak. “Everybody needs saving sometimes, Kairi,” he whispered, remembering the way the world seemed to halt when Sora fell from the sky the very moment Riku needed him most. He was so beautiful then, so radiant and strong.

“Aqua would have killed Mickey and I if Sora didn’t save us,” he said slowly, “and we’d all be gone if he hadn’t chased down Xehanort. This isn’t your fault.”

“Who can I blame if I can’t blame myself?” she asked, quiet, broken.

For that, Riku didn’t have an answer. All he knew is that blame wouldn’t heal wounds the way she wanted it to, so instead he lifted himself from the tree, placed himself in front of her and wrapped his arms around her waist, setting his head in her lap and closing his eyes. He felt her start to tremble again and hugged her tighter, comforted slightly when she placed her cold hands on his neck and hunched around him, sobbing. When he lifted his head, there were tearstains on her skirt.

It was almost midnight when Riku untied a boat from the dock and began rowing the both of them to the main island. He wanted to talk pleasantries with Kairi, even comment on something as dumb and mundane as the weather that night, if only it would get her to speak. He could see her getting lost in her own thoughts from the other side of the boat, but he couldn’t bring himself to pretend like he was okay, either. He walked her home that night and hugged her father when he swung the door open, not content to leave until Kairi’s light had flicked off for the night. Riku turned back to the stars then, wondering which ones Sora landed on and who else had their hearts changed by his kindness.

The stars did not answer. They twinkled on like they did before he left, and Riku suspected they would keep shining long afterward, too.

 

Months passed rather quietly after that. The rest of the Guardians began to rebuild their lives on their respective worlds. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus set to repairing the Land of Departure, while Lea, Roxas, and Xion tried to find a normal life in Twilight Town. Riku even heard that Isa was trying to repair things with the trio. Donald, Goofy, and Mickey returned to Disney Castle, and Riku and Kairi were left to their sleepy, lonely paradise.

Riku wasn’t sure how to find a normal life in the aftermath of the war. He considered applying to the few colleges and trade schools the island offered but decided that it was all too mundane for him. After all he’d seen and been through, he doubted that post-secondary education would fill the hole. He thought about going on vacation somewhere, too. Kairi laughed when he made that proposition. “We live where you’d vacation,” she quipped, and Riku rolled his eyes rather dramatically. He liked Radiant Garden, after all, and he was sure Kairi would like it too if she wanted to join him. The idea of leaving this place had its appeal, but he couldn’t muster the courage to open the portal. What would he do once he got there?

“Didn’t you ask me that?” he said, whipping his head around to her. “What I would do when I got to another world.”

Kairi pursed her lips and shrugged, avoiding his eyes. “I don’t really remember. If I did, I was probably just teasing you.”

Somehow, that answer made him feel worse.

“Maybe we should go, then,” he insisted, pulling out his phone. “I could probably ask the King for permission to borrow the Gummi Ship. We could go wherever we wanted, eat all kinds of weird foods, just like we always wanted to. Wouldn’t that be fun?” Riku felt like he was fishing for a response that he wasn’t prepared for, and unfortunately, he was right. Kairi smiled wearily and cast her eyes to the horizon, threading her fingers together.

“He always wanted to be the world’s biggest tourist, didn’t he?”

Riku deflated, but he wasn’t satisfied yet. “We should just have fun for a bit. You never got to see the worlds for yourself, and I promised I’d take you back then.”

Kairi shook her head, resolute in her decision. “It wouldn’t be right, Riku. Not without him.”

The pair fell into silence after that. After all, she was right. Although it was originally Riku’s idea to build a raft, it was Sora who gave him the courage to put that idea to work. Riku couldn’t deny that going world-hopping now without their third member would be unacceptable. “How do you think Donald and Goofy are doing?” he asked instead, unable to let silence fall between them. Kairi put a finger to her mouth and pondered for a moment, her brow furrowed.

“They’re probably doing pretty well,” she said, “after all, Donald has Daisy, Goofy has Max, and the King has the Queen. They’re surrounded by their loved ones, so they have people to lean on when they get sad.”

That jabbed Riku in the throat.

“I… don’t think it’s that simple, Kai,” he marked. They both know that having someone else to love doesn’t fill the space where he once lived.

Kairi stayed quiet for a moment longer, then inhaled sharply. “I think I just need to believe someone out there is okay with all of this,” she said. “I see him everywhere. I hear his voice in my dreams. I can’t stop missing him, Riku.”

Riku held her hand the entire walk home.

 

Kairi grew more distant by the week. Riku couldn’t get so much as a text from her some days, and that was enough to make the fear in the pit of his stomach double in size. Whenever he saw her, she always seemed to be intensely focused on something; if they were hanging out together, she seemed disconnected from the conversation entirely. He could tell it was related to Sora, but Riku couldn’t fathom for his life how to pull her out of her own head. It couldn’t be good for her. He still couldn’t admit out loud that Sora’s goodbye was probably his last, and it was absolutely eating him alive.

That is, until Kairi called him first.

“Come down to the secret place tonight,” she said, her voice warped slightly by poor reception. Still, she sounded determined. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Why the secret place?” he asked, already putting on his shoes and grabbing his keys.

Something shuffled on the other end. It sounded like papers. “For privacy’s sake. Besides, isn’t that our spot?” she asked, and Riku didn’t have the gall to question her. When he arrived, Kairi was pacing back and forth in the cove, Destiny’s Embrace shimmering in her hand like a beacon. There was a certain resolve on her face—the way life was suddenly alight in her eyes where she’d been absent for so, so long made Riku gasp.

“Sit down,” she started, a triumphant smile spreading across her face. “I know how to bring him back, Riku. We can bring him back. We can bring him home.”

She stood in front of the Door, Keyblade firm in her hand and a fire in her weary heart. She held a hand to her chest the same way he used to, her face was just as hopeful as his was when he left, and she sounded so incredibly sure of herself that Riku was afraid the light would pull her apart.

“What are you talking about?” Riku asked hesitantly. He felt Braveheart itching in his palm, begging to be called upon, pushing his fearful spirit closer to the light.

Kairi took hold of his hand at that instant, meeting his eyes for the first time in weeks. “I had a dream,” she started, “that he woke up in a strange city. He was alone, but he was alive! It felt like he was calling out to me. We can help him,” she whispered, Key in one hand, pointed at the Door. “We just have to try.”

Riku swallowed hard as he realized he was starting to hyperventilate. It had to be too good to be true. It couldn’t be true. Maybe it was a trap—maybe one of the Seekers survived and was trying to get them. He had to protect Kairi, then. It was his responsibility to protect the people who mattered, and she was all he had left in the world. He opened his mouth to protest, but Kairi cut him short. “Sora needs us, Riku,” she said, her voice delicate, pleading.

It was the first time she’d said his name since he left.

Suddenly, Riku couldn’t find the words to tell her that he would devour all the darkness in the worlds all over again if it meant bringing Sora home. His heart had ached for so unbearably long that he was beginning to forget what life was like before the war. He gave everything he had to protect the people that mattered, and only one of them made it home. Even she came home with a heart in tatters. He wanted so desperately to tell her yes, to fill that aching hole, but something was holding his tongue.

Kairi shook his shoulder, trying to find his gaze. “Riku, please don’t give up. I’ll do it myself if I have to,” she says, and takes a small breath, “but he needs both of us.” Her hand was starting to dig into the bone, as though frantically trying to carve an answer out of him.

She was so bright like this. She was absolutely blinding. Riku could feel the light of her heart piercing into his, searching in between the shadows for what he knew was a spark of hope. He wanted to believe, so then why was he afraid? Riku looked to the Door, then followed Destiny’s Embrace to Kairi’s begging eyes.

“Promise me I won’t lose you.”

Her anxious expression instantly softened.

“You won’t. It’s time for the three of us to be together.”

“I’m serious, Kairi,” he said, rising to his full height and pulling her into a tight hug. Her chin poked awkwardly into his sternum as he definitely caught her off guard, but he thought it was a grounding discomfort. “Promise me. I don’t think I can lose anybody else.”

After a beat of silence, Kairi dismissed her Keyblade and returned his hug. “I promise,” she murmured into his shirt, “wherever one goes, the other follows.” Riku could feel her bury her face further into his chest, trying to muffle the sniffles and dry the tears that came unbidden.

A part of Riku wanted to stay that way for a while, but the pit in his stomach had finally swallowed itself and he was filled with a new energy. He pulled Kairi out from under his arms and summoned Braveheart into reality, the weight familiar and satisfying in his hand. “You said he was calling out to you. Where do you think he is?”

Kairi wiped her nose and nodded. “He was standing in the middle of a crosswalk. I don’t know what that place is, but I think that if I call out to him there, his heart will lead us to him.” She held a hand to her heart, smiling, and Riku felt as though he’d burst.

All his life, he’d been searching for the strength to protect what mattered. It was a nameless drive that propelled him through the darkness and into the light; it was an unknown force that let him cut through Sora’s dreams and bless him with courage. The strength to protect what mattered, Riku realized that day in the Graveyard, was called love.

And so, Riku stood.

He lifted Braveheart to the sky and held Kairi by the hand, who closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, confidently. “Lead the way, Sora,” he said, and within moments, the secret place was consumed by light.

**Author's Note:**

> is it me... or did kingdom hearts 3 kind of... forget... that riku & kairi are best friends? that riku lost both of his important people in a single day, got both of them back, then one sacrificed himself to save the other? i needed to fix that in my head, so here you go, my one (1) sadfic of the year. i posted something super sweet & sappy last year but i didn't like it soooo
> 
> see ya'll in 2020


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